THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
THE CARIBS, INTO WHOSE TERRITORY TItE
EDITION PENETRATED, ARE SKTITUL,
Roth the bows and arrows of these natives nm
more in length. The clothing of the men consist.
loin-cloth. The simple garment of the women i
white beads-the "lap" or "queyu"-depending f
the waist.
The setting, also, is perfect; no signs
of human habitation or human works
mar the surroundings; all is wild nature
at its best.
The geological details are no less in
teresting in themselves.
The plateau
everywhere is surfaced with a dense con
glomerate bearing very little soil; so that,
despite the heavy rains of the wet sea
son, it affords poor holding ground for
vegetation. In effect a rocky savanna,
its characteristic plant inhabitants are a
giant Bromeliad and an abundant sundew
(Drosera), besides the
grasses of the more
favorable areas.
At the brink of the
falls, from which mar
velous views down the
gorge unfold, the rock
falls away in great
blocks, sometimes
leaving a step upon
which the waters dash
into foam before
plunging into the
depths below.
In the cavern behind
the watery curtain im
mense flocks of swal
lows pass the night,
winging their way
back in the late after
noon from their day's
The base camp at
etaieteur was estab
lished a mile or so
above the falls, near
the margin of the
upper Potaro River.
It was a simple and
characteristic estab
lishment. A rough
RORAIMA EXPE- framework of sap
_HUNTERS
lings supports a tar
paulin as a roof, but
asure six feet and all sides are left en
s of an abbreviated tirelopen. The ridge
s a small apron of irelyopen. Theridge
from a cord about pole rests at one end
in the natural fork of
a stout pole, while the
other is held by a similar pole against a
large tree. The edges of the canvas roof
are laid over eaves-poles similarly sup
ported and are held out and tied to
slender sticks driven into the ground.
A camp bed is useless or worse: one
sleeps in a wide hammock of Indian
weave, slung from the ridge-pole. Poi
sonous snakes are far from uncommon
and scorpions several inches long may
be picked up from among the leaves and
sticks beneath the hammock. The trav
eler soon forms the habit of shaking out
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